Building the Great Court / Source: The University of Queensland Library

At my exchange university, the University of Queensland (UQ), There’s this really great space in the centre of campus called the Great Court. Picture a big grassy area with trees where students can relax in, surrounded by an enclosed by old sandstone buildings and walkways that features great thinkers, grotesques, university coats of arms from around the world, and historic scenes all made out of stone.

Yesterday, as I was taking a new route to find the post office, I found the UBC coat of arms on one of the cloisters in the Great Court! Yes, I did get weird looks as I walked around the cloister to snap pictures with the worlds biggest smile, but it was worth it.

The UBC coat of Arms in the Great Court at UQ / Courtesy of me

It’s no secret that I think UBC is the greatest university on the planet, so I was really proud to see our school’s coat of arms there on UQ campus. I also thought, wow, that’s UBC’s coat of arms in the form of stone on a university campus in Australia and I had no idea for the last few months it has been there at all. Who know where else a UBC logo or coat of arms is hiding around the world?

What else makes this especially wonderful to me is that there’s a little piece of UBC with me while I’m on exchange. I’ve been asked a lot recently to speak to outgoing exchange students from UQ about UBC and now I’ve got this cloister is one more piece of evidence about how cool UBC is.

For the last two months I’ve had summer vacation. Next week I begin classes as a Go Global exchange student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Here’s what has happened during my “summer vacation.”

Part one: January

Slept on my friend’s couch for two weeks leading up to the 2012 Student Leadership Conference (SLC), in their apartment they’ve named Naropa (named after a university in Boulder, Colorado).

My welcome letter to Naropa

Had my SLC Director make this poster for my friends:

Made this awesome video for the opening ceremonies at the 2012 Student Leadership Conference:

Later, agreed to take a break from throwing paint at people.

Chloe, our Volunteer Coordinator getting ready to shoot the opening ceremonies video

After months and months of planning, the SLC finally happened!

The Communications and Promotions Portfolio at the SLC awards reception

Then, only 48 hours after the SLC, boarded a plane for New Zealand with Brian and Dylan. Eventually, we showed up in Auckland and took this photo in a coffee shop the day we arrived:

Brain, Dylan, and I are all past Residence Advisors and this year’s members of the SLC planning committee. It worked out well that we are all on exchange in Australia this term, that way the three of us could travel together.

Began participating in WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) where we learned about sustainable and organic farming while living and working on farms on the North Island of New Zealand. Here’s a photo with one of our hosts, the Jones family, who own a dairy farm in Kerikeri. I can now add cow milking to my list of experiences.

The Jones family with Brian, Dylan, and I

Finished off the month with sea kayaking, islands, penguins, more organic farming, more weeding on organic farms, and more driving around New Zealand. Next post: what happened in month two of my “summer vacation.”

One of my proudest moments at UBC is making the “OurCampus” in the Ubyssey. For those of you who don’t know, every edition of the school paper features a new person who contributes to what UBC is today.

This year’s Faces of Today: http://slc.ubc.ca/recognition/faces-of-today/
Videos to be released at the UBC Student Leadership Conference on January 14th, 2012 (see you then!).

Article: http://ubyssey.ca/features/343our-campus-erica-baker%E2%80%94the-face-of-faces-of-today/

I just have to post this video in case some people on UBC campus have not seen it yet. As Productions Coordinator for the 2012 UBC Student Leadership Conference, I was put in charge of filming a promotional campaign for conference registration. So, here’s the final product of that! You just need to see what that turned out to be, it’s a pretty good laugh and a really fun way to spend one minute and ten seconds of your day.

Stay tuned for more video content and an extended footage version of the shoot!

A postcard momma bakes mailed me that was cut from a Cheerios box. I didn’t know my family started eating Cherrios since I left for university.

I probably couldn’t get through university without my mom (momma bakes). Since first year, she has sent me several pieces of mail per week (I’m not kidding). Everything from stamps, to candy, to family photos, to cards, to gifts cards and more. Whatever can fit in a regular sized envelope, she sends. She’s never been to university, she’s hardly goes past our town’s boundaries, but she knows that it’s not easy.

This Cheerios post card she mailed me is one of the greatest pieces of mail I’ve ever received from her. The clipping from our address book that had a drawing I made when I was really little was also great. So was that time she mailed me Halloween candy and I opened it up in a lecture, with looks from fellow classmates, and began explaining what my mom does as I offered them treats in a forestry lecture.

Academics have been my biggest struggle at university. I’ve often felt like I couldn’t get the grades I needed in my classes, do well on assignments, or dig myself out of the constant low grades I was receiving in some courses. These cards let me know that even though I’m far from my mom and she knows nothing about university, I’m not alone and I’ve got a mom cheering me on from our small town in Ontario.

Lately, I’ve tried to remember the things my mom tells me. I’ve been passing it onto residents as their Residence Advisor and I’ve been keeping them post it notes in my room to remind me that things will work out in the end. Today, I put one of her phrases on my hand to put things into perspective. “This too shall pass.” When you are so far in, it’s hard to see that the present is so insignificant to the greater scheme of things, and that this is not the end of the world if things aren’t going your way. Everything will work out the way it is supposed to and whatever is the low of your day will not carry on forever. That’s exactly what I need today. Also a little, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Because I can’t change my bad grades, or the bad choices I’ve made, but I can focus on improving the future. That’s what I’m going to do. Thank you, momma bakes.

A photo of momma bakes and I at the ROM in Toronto, the summer after first year. She left our town’s boundaries that day, I had to be the one who drove to Toronto for us.

If there is anything you do today, be it that you watch this video, produced by UBC REC (that deserves a Matt Corker “Boom!” to describe it).

A huge kudos goes out to the entire Media Team at UBC REC, my past RA and current best friend Alyssa Koehn, Advising teammates in Totem Park David Protheroe and Warren Springer (the man in the video all the ladies love), who were all a part of making this video happen.

Here are other tidbits from their video shoot you might enjoy as well.

If I was anywhere near the definition of athletic, I’d so want to do TriDu 2011 just because of these videos. If anything, I might try to drink a little more water and get a little more physical because of it.

ebakes and jbakes (my little brother who’s in Grade 12)

After a long hiatus of exams and winter break, I’ve been back to Niagara Falls, Toronto, and now I’m all snugglly-warm in my Totem Park dorm room. My apologies for being non-existent for the last little while but now I’m here.

What’s on the horizon?
Film photography class, finding out the results on my Go Global application (crossing my fingers for the University of Queensland, Australia), WTFL (Women’s Totem Football League) and learning how to snowboard! Oh so much fun.

This term, I’ll be filming more and more of little bits of my life for this blog. Here’s the first taste of that. Meet my family, momma bakes and jbakes. Also, the second video is a hilarious telling of a story from my mother’s childhood for all of those momma bakes fans out there. The ending is the best part.

Dear friends,

A few months ago, I incorporated my own company, which is why this website exists as of today. It’s called The Collaboration Company. I wanted to give an official announcement on my UBC Blog because this blog has acted as my home for the last year and a half that has been the place where I have shared details of my story with all of you, my friends.

So why did I start this company? When I was 15 years old, I became Youth Mayor of my city. I recognized the need for more opportunities for youth in my community and that someone had to address the negative discourse that some of my peers were applying to the world around them. Big changes had to happen. I worked on many projects from deciding where bike lanes would be painted on city roads, at one point I was working on forming a Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee, and most of the time I was seeking out others who had the same drive I had to give new ways for youth to interact with their community.

As I took on all these projects, different organizations and institutions noticed this need as well and asked me to collaborate with them on conferences for youth, connect with the Chair of the Region about youth needs, and asked me what they could do for our generation. I’ve been pulled into numerous board rooms, had many meetings and I’ve exchanged many emails that have lead me to realize that my skills in leadership development, awareness of youth needs, and knowledge on student engagement had grown so highly that I was prepared to contribute to my community in a new way- through a business.

The Collaboration Company draws its strength through the synergy that is created when top young leaders come together to build the best opportunities for youth. Using networks such as the Loran Awards and Top 20 Under 20, The Collaboration Company brings Canada’s leading young leaders into the conversation of leadership and youth development. These leaders are experts in their respect fields which could be in politics, international development, non-profit work, or athletics, that gives our development process different perspectives on youth needs. That’s what makes this venture unique.

So here I am. A few months after incorporation. The last three months since have been spent working for Youth University at Brock University developing a four year long high school leadership program for students in the Niagara Region, all from my dorm room in Vancouver. The things that are being built are worth sharing and that’s what I hope to use this website as a venue for.

Please check out our website. If you would like to contribute to future projects, have any ideas you would like to share, please leave a comment or send me an email. It’s erica@collaborationcompany.ca. I value your input because I hold my friends, family and peers dearly. All of you have contributed to who I am, each in your own way, and I thank you for helping me get this far. I want to include you in future conversations about youth development and I know that we’ll make a mark on communities across Canada with our collective voices coming together as one.

Your biggest fan and friend,

Erica

One more reason for collaboration. Watch this TED Talk about radical innovation.

…and totally forgot to tell you guys about it until now, so sorry.

That’s me on the left, Blake on the right!

It’s no secret that I love TOMS Shoes. I’ve owned so many pairs that I can’t count how many I’ve actually had. I have so many that I have summer only TOMS that sit in my TOMS Shoes reserve back in Ontario until sunshine hits. I have so many TOMS that I’ve had to leave pairs in Guatemala.

I keep this pair of TOMS unworn and on my shelf. They are signed as a going-away present by members of the Toronto MOB and the Free The Children/Me to We offices.

∞

When Blake came to Vancouver for a TOMS Shoes launch event at Holt Renfrew, one of my best friends Alyssa got word of his appearence and sent me a bbm with the details. A frantic bus ride a few hours later we ended up in his presence. He’s a chill dude, totally in the middle of tons of TOMS promotions, but was nice enough to take time to sign my flag.

I felt like I was at the launch party for the Abercrombie of grassroots movements. Beautiful Holt Renfrew staff members were wearing my primary choice of shoe as they served me hipster bottled cola out of a little red wagon as we hung out next to designer jeans. There was carmel kettle corn that came in little TOMS bags, a TOMS dj, a TOMS air hockey table and TOMS pillows.

I love TOMS for their simplicity, comfort, and that they give a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair you buy. Because of their partnership with Holt Renfrew I know that more shoes go to more children in need but I left with feelings that the TOMS Shoes experience was becoming a little less personal and thoughtful. The personal touch of giving you a TOMS flag and a TOMS sticker with every purchased seemed to see a little less special and I felt that people who were buying TOMS didn’t even know the company values that made them special.

After all of the glitter and glam of TOMS being launched in Holt Renfrew stores that evening, I didn’t stop giving my TOMS back at home the love and attention they deserve. I’m still a TOMS Shoes fan and I’ll still support their mission of giving shoes to those in need. I hope the message of that reaches the masses that now wear their shoes.